New Ruling in Breonna Taylor Case Sparks Outrage on Social Media

People are responding to another sad turn in the death of Breonna Taylor, who was wrongfully killed at the hands of police officers on March 13, 2020. A federal judge has tossed out felony charges against former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that brought police officers to Taylor's apartment.

In 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany of knowing they had falsified part of the warrant that put Taylor in her fatal situation. Jaynes and Meany were not present at the bungled raid.

U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson's ruling declared that the actions of Taylor's then-boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired a shot at police the night of the raid, was the legal cause of her death, according to CBS News.

Walker has said he believed an intruder was bursting into his home when he fired his gun on that fateful morning in March 2020. Officers returned fire, striking and killing Taylor in her hallway. Kentucky is one of 30 states with ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, where a person has a legal right to the use of lethal force in public, but only in cases of self-defense where there is an immediate attack.

Simpson has declared that "there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor's death." The ruling reduces the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which carried life imprisonment sentences, to misdemeanors.

The ruling has led to a spark of outrage on social media.

Reporter Talia Jayne writes: "If your girlfriend gets shot and killed by cops while sleeping in bed next to you, the state in the democratic justice epicenter of the world will say it’s your fault."

Reporter Billy Binion states: "Infuriating. These [two] cops allegedly lied on the warrant that gave police access to Breonna Taylor’s apartment. A judge just ruled they can no longer be criminally charged for that because, in his view, Kenneth Walker caused Taylor’s death when he tried to defend her life. I just."

In response to civil rights attorney Ben Crump's post about the ruling, @alanfike comments: "So either we can protect ourselves in our homes during an unidentified forceful invasion in the middle of the night or we can't. Which one?"